[link]Putin snarls, but Obama gets the last laugh,http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/putin-snarls-obama-gets-the-last-laugh[/link]

For much of the year, conservative praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin was so overwhelming, you’d think he was the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) gushed, “Putin is playing chess and I think we are playing marbles.” Rudy Giuliani said of Putin, “That’s what you call a leader.” Even Mitt Romney hailed the Russian autocrat: “I think Putin has outperformed our president time and time again on the world stage.”

But if Republicans can pull themselves away from drawing hearts around their Putin photographs, they might notice that it’s President Obama getting the last laugh as developments go the opposite of the way Russia had hoped.